Trading with the enemy
Subtitle: the covert economy during the American Civil War
By: Philip Leigh
Publisher: Westholme Publishing, LLC
Published: 2014
Language: eng
Number of pages: 182
ISBN-13: 9781594161995
Copyright date: 2014
Subjects: Cotton trade; Economic aspects; Interstate commerce; History
Other titles: Covert economy during the American Civil War; Trading the enemy
Description: In Trading with the Enemy: The Covert Economy During the American Civil War, New York Times Disunion contributor Philip Leigh recounts the little-known story of clandestine commerce between the North and South. Cotton was so important to the Northern economy that Yankees began growing it on the captured Sea Islands of South Carolina. Soon the neutral port of Matamoras, Mexico, became a major trading center, where nearly all the munitions shipped to the port - much of it from Northern armories - went to the Confederacy. After the fall of New Orleans and Vicksburg, a frenzy of contraband-for-cotton swept across the vast trans-Mississippi Confederacy, with Northerners sometimes buying the cotton directly from the Confederate government. A fascinating study, Trading with the Enemy adds another layer to our understanding of the Civil War.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: The world cotton economy; title: Official policy; title: The Port Royal experiment; title: Matamoros; title: Mississippi Valley trade; title: Abusing the blockade; title: Norfolk; title: Kirby Smithdom; title: Eyes tightly shut.